Breakfast Menu

Dear All

This year, the girls are both in the morning school. This year is the first time that Feli has to stay on in school 3 out of 5 days. As their schools will be demolished, they are now at the holding schools, which are further away from home. They have to wake up at 5:20am to catch their 6:15 school buses. Hence, the need to make sure they have the most important meal of the day.

Then, Bert came across a microwavable egg maker. He bought it from Shop & Save along the aisle where you can find all kinds of knick-knacks hanging from the shelves.

The egg-maker is easy to use. The only draw-back is it can only hold 1 egg at a time. But the best part is, you just crack an egg, drop it into the yellow container, pierce the yolk with a fork, then close it loosely with the white lid and microwave on high for 35 secs. Since my eggs are direct from the fridge, I will place the container at the edge of the turn-table and microwave for 35 secs. Then scoop it out onto your bowl and add dark soya sauce and pepper to taste. Taste just like the tradition boiled ones that my mum used to make for me when I was little :)

Another quick breakfast is to make pancakes. The batter can be made the night before. The original recipe has proper measurements, but my weighing scales are packed neatly into my cupboards somewhere and it's so troublesome to weigh out just small amounts. So I use my handy tablespoon and teacup to measure things out.

Pancake recipe (that the girls says tastes just like MacD. hotcakes!)

5 heaped tablespoon full of self raising flour (or 100g)

6 flat teaspoons full of fine sugar (or 3 tablespoons)

1 beaten egg

half a teacup of milk (or 125ml)

Mix the flour with the sugar well. Pour in the beaten egg and mix it up. Next pour in the milk and mix it. The batter should be a thick liquid-like mixture. I add a half teaspoon of vanilla essence myself for the nicer aroma.

You can then keep your batter to make your pancakes fresh the next morning.

I usually scoop 3 tablespoons of batter in the frying pan at a time to make 1 pancake. You can use cooking oil or margarine. The batter can make between 5 - 6 pancakes, more than enough for the 2 girls. The pancakes cook fast. You eat it with margine and maple syrup or by itself, as it is already sweet and smells delicious.

Bon appetite....go try it lah!

Love

Theresa

My Dad

Dear All

Last weekend, when I was saying my goodbye to my dad, he told me thanks for helping and for coming. When he is lucid, he can recognise me and talk a little. He looked at me with intelligent and focused eyes, so I know his faculties are alright. Needless to say, I was very moved. I tried to put up a brave front as I stroke his arm and told him, he needn't thank me at all. We are family and we should help each other when in need.

I then thanked him for accompanying me every Sat afternoon for years, changing 2 buses, to get to my cousin's home for piano lessons. Each 1 way journey took 1.5h. He would wait patiently for me for another 1.5h or so to finish my lessons. We would walk from the dusty busstop across some wilderness..a short cut to my cousin's private house in the hot afternoon sun, and then we later walk down to IHM for the sunset Mass. He was at least 60 years old then. For all his toil and sacrifice, I made sure I passed all my piano exams so that his sacrifices do not go to waste.

I thanked him then too for taking care of the kids when they were little and I had to go to work. Without them, I couldn't go to work with such great peace of mind, not to mention a great deal of money saved from child-care centres (although we did provide for the maid). Then, I told him the 3 magic words "I Love You". I teared a little. My dad can't really hear well, he can only hear a little in his right ear. He can't see very well either as his cateracts in both eyes are already yellow. So I don't really know if he could hear or see everything that I've said or seen me teared, but one thing is for sure, I know he felt my love for him in my touching him.

I sayang his head, and he seemed so contented. It's like how our pet, Snowy, looked like when we stroke him on his head. It's like how the children like it when I sayang them. My dad is never one to show emotions and quite strong in character. I used to be the one who can get my dad to smile when I was small. I have also seen his softer side when he was taking care of my 2 kids when they were little. I guess, with his frail body, I just felt moved and stroke his head like what I've seen my mum did at the hospital, and saw how he loved it...so I did the same...and he loved it. I think in old age, every single human touch and care, and presence, is cherished. Actually, if you think about it, what is all the stress and rush in life about? When everything is taken away, what's most important in life is relationship, family and true friends.

Love Theresa

Sermon by Fr Bernard Teo today (16 Jan 2011)

Dear All

This is the 3rd or so time we have attended the Redempterist priest Fr Bernard Teo's sermon at the Sunday Mass. He's a visiting priest from Melbourne who had recently celebrated 31 years as a priest. His sermons are usually long as he's a teacher at the seminary and does lots of writing and teaches on ethical issues effecting society.

Anyway, today's sermon on the letter of St Paul to the Corinthians touches on how we are already holy & saintly people due to our baptism. Baptism is the Holy Spirit transforming us. Then in the same letter of St Paul, he chides these same christians for being sinful. People then, and even now, have not changed....people then take each other to court, take other's wives as their own, the rich indulge in gluttony and get drunk and do not share their food with the poor during the "mass" or fellowship as they call it then. All kinds of wickedness and evilness prevailed amongst the so-called christians then, which is still happening now. So St Paul's letter still applies to us

He touched on how disillussion and angry Catholics are with the disgraceful state of society and even of the priests who sinned against children. He said how many in the flock are falling away because they are disenchanted and disappointed in their priests. He shared with us a letter from a parishioner who has kept in touch with him over the past 25 years. She said that she was shocked with the bad behaviour of her 3 current priests in her parish in USA, but at the same time remember other priests who were explemary in their behaviour. Now that she's much older now, what keeps her in her faith is not the priests, but her believe in the faithfulness of God.

Fr Teo shared that although some priests disappointed him, there are also those who are very generous and charitable. The Church of Christ has gone through even more worse times than now and She still stands the test of time because Christ promises to always be with Her, His bride. Afterall, we don't come to church to worship or see the priests, but to worship our God who promises to be faithful to us always even though we are not always faithful to Him. God's love is bigger than we can ever imagine, and He can love the sinner no matter how bad he is.

So in summary, don't lose faith in your God no matter how bad society has become for God's love in unfathomable.

Love Theresa

Dear All

Our 1st LC sharing question for 2011 held @ A+P's home is:

SHARING QUESTION: Do we regard ourselves as truly active Catholics? How does my "active Catholic life" - e.g. prayer and sacramental life, attending Mass regularly, going for confession...etc - help me in my relationship with my spouse?

Bert & I didn't get to go beyond sharing that we ought to get our little family rosary session going again this Jan, as now the girls come home late & are in the morning school. It's quite a challenge to make a common time to pray as everyone is busy with school/office/house work!

It was nice that we got some time to ourselves today...Bert sent the car for servicing, so we had time to "date" again..just leisurely breakfast, then lunch, then shopping. We never really had "solid" couple time last year, (only when the car is serviced!) so mental note...need more couple time this year!

Looking back at 2010, it's been a "cultural" events year for our family. We never attended any concert or arts/theatre together as a family, and it was a nice and new experience for us. The year-end of kinda of sad for me as my dad had a few episodes. Having spoken to and comforting my mum, I realised how negative my views get after talking to her. Tiffany had commented on it. So instead of being influenced by my mum, I try to make her count her blessings instead of remember the hurts and pains.

I read a handy guide on being happy. Top most on the list is STOP COMPLAINING!

This is the website : https://iknow.com.sg/MembersContent/TipsiKnow/JanuaryIssue/The7SecretsofHappyPeople/tabid/401/Default.aspx

Tips By: Kari Farmer

1) live in the present

2) have strong relationships in their lives

3) know who they are and act the part

4) do not complain

5) doing what makes them happy

6) see the positive side of everything

7) compassionate and understanding

When I think back to my carefree days as a child, I make up my own games to entertain myself. (that is point 5). I make friends with other children not caring if they are rich or poor, can speak English or Chinese, and just have simple fun. I don't worry about tomorrow and just focus on the present (that is point 1).

I know my parents love me unconditionally (that's point 2) as a child. I know I'm just a kid and don't care a hood what I am wearing as long as it's comfortable for me to run in and am decently covered up (that's point 3). I do complain somewhat then but less so than as an adult! (that's point 4). If I can't find other kids to play with, I play make-believe games with the furniture around the house (I guess that's like point 6). I wasn't good at being compassionate I guess as a child, but I learnt it when I saw my parent cry when Kong-Kong and Ah-Poh passed away (that's point 7).

Now, as an adult, I try to keep counting the many numerous blessings God has given me.

I try to catch myself complaining and stop it.

I tried the experiment of living in the now for a day, and not worrying about the future...it feels fantastic! My senses are highlighted to fully appreciate the people and goings-on around me at the present time.

I thank the Lord for great friends like LC couples, the PRE family, the Choir, SCC and the praying parents and the parents of my children's friends, plus true friends from my "working" and NETs days.

I try to see the positives of situations, as most everything has 2-sides of the coin. Why waste time grumbling about the down-side of things. The thing has already happened, so just move on. Failure is the stepping stone to success, that's what Bert always remind us!

I now make time to do things that I enjoy rather than feeling like I'm always "giving" to others. The children know I have my time, and sometimes mummy & daddy time. So I do painting whenever I feel like it, play the piano just for myself, try out new recipes, do crotcheting, do a sport of retail therapy.

Do at least 1 new thing you've never done before this year.

One of my previous boss shared that in his family, each member writes out a thing they want to achieve for that year. So that by the end of the year, they can look back with satisfaction that they have achieved something new. I like the idea and was astounded by it. For our family, it's not so ambituous as his....it's something simple like e.g experiencing a theatre show together as a family (something new to us). Or taking a junk cruise as a family. Or for the kids, getting a bronze award for swimming etc.

Compassion and understand comes from living with others. Being moved by those less fortunate than us and being thankful for what we have. The kids learn such values from emulating us. So we have to be constantly good role models for them. If we fail, they will remind us...:)

Love

Theresa

Dad's in hospital over Christmas this year

Dear All

Dad was unconscious for a while again on 16 Dec 2010. He's been in hospital since then till today.

Today is my parents' 53rd wedding anniversary. I had already ordered the cake before he went in the 2nd time. Our elder brother had already booked his hols overseas so couldn't celebrate christmas or our parents' anniversary this year. Dad is very understanding.

As mum cut the cake without dad this afternoon, she broke down and cried. This was the 1st time dad wasn't beside her. I consoled her that it's better he stays in the hospital till they know what's causing him to have fits and going unconscious. He recently was unconscious when he was in the hospital the day we returned from our hols (mum was told he was to be discharged that day..22 Dec) so has to stay on.

When I see my parents still so in love with each other still, I feel like they are a fairytale come true. Their love for each other is so inspiring and touching. Mum said when she was leaving him yesterday (christmas day), dad called her not to worry about the anniversary cake. What was more important is that he still loves her.

Mum asked me to ask a priest to anoint him. Their home communion ministers visited him on christmas day to give him communion, which he can't swallow (he's on semi-solids) and advised us to get the priest to give him anointing for healing. This is something I wish to share with you whenever you have a loved one who is sick whether at home or in hospital....get them anointed. Miracles can sometimes happen and they may be healed and get better. I managed to speak to Fr Albert of Holy Trinity Church and miraculously he'll be able to anoint him TODAY his wedding anniversary! God is really mercifully and almighty. My mum, to me, is like Mother Mary, a Godly woman, full of faith.

Please continue to pray for my dad.

Love

Theresa

Our Holiday in KL (19 - 22 Dec 2010)

Dear All

After Felicia's christmas party at the church where she also performed with the children's choir, we left immediately to catch the last coach to KL (the 8pm bus).

Journey from here to KL non-stop is 5h so we reached KL on 20 Dec @ 1a.m.

Guess what, the hotel made a boo-boo and gave us a room that was still occupied!! Bert & Feli got a shock to see shoes lined up when they opened the door. Tiff & I were behind them so didn't see a thing. Bert was quite freaked out and there I was saying maybe it was the hotel's bedroom slippers. But he insisted he saw some track shoes!

So we went down again to the hotel's reception. Needless to say, the guy didn't believe us as his system showed it was vacant. So he called the room (it was almost 2am!) and someone answered the call. He was so embarrassed that he gave us a FREE upgrade! 2 choices were given to us...honeymoon suite @ 2nd floor smoking area with king-sized bed facing the pool (similar to ours except ours was at 7th floor) or executive suite with 2 single beds @ 10th floor non-smoking and facing Petrona Twin Towers. Both are so good, so hard to choose. But non-smoking and the Towers won.

We later saw that the honey-moon suite had canopy bed posts and could walk down to the pool!! So cool right? However the drawback was people from the pool can see into your room and the passage outside is the only path to the spa and pool, so it's quite noisy actually. Makes you wonder why they placed the honey-moon suite there in the first place...no privacy!

Anyway, we only had 2 full days in KL as Bert don't have any leave left, so we had to leave by Wed morning. Since we booked this hol very last minute (Bert suddenly found that he was free and had leave to clear) the only return slot was 9am or else 4pm, so we went for 9am.

First day, we booked a half day country tour. It included the Royal Selangor factory, batik making factory, a look at a rubber tree, clock & Jewellery shop and lastly Batu Caves. We got a mini van all to ourselves with a driver.

Surprisingly, the tour of the Royal Selangor pewter factory was very interesting. We got to see the museum or pewter wares, a mini replica of the drenching machine and a full sized replica of the plough. The stages of moulding the mug handles, hand polishing the mug, machine polishing the mug and hammering of patterns on the mug were all demonstrated by different workers at each of these stations. We even had the chance to hammer the patterns on pewter and drank 100plus from the mugs. There was a workshop lasting an hour @ Rm50 per child to make their own pewter masterpiece. I was interested but this was our 1st stop on the tour and the entire tour was supposed to be 3h, so we had to move on.

(Bert & I at the world's largest tankard)

(Below: Felicia hammering patterns onto pewter)

The trip to Batu Caves was great. We had to climb 272 steps up the lime caves. There are supposed to be 3 caves but I only counted 2. The insides of the caves are huge. They are actually housing hindu temples. There were not many hindus around, mostly tourists. There's lots of pigeons and monkeys at the entrance and steps to the caves. If you have never seen the insides of a cave, then you should go to this place. God's creation is so beautiful! I think these could be man-made perhaps from the excavation of lime stones, but our driver is hindu and says the caves have been there for as long as he can remember, but he admitted there once were excavation on the mountains around it, but the govt stopped it.

(Entrance to Batu Caves with its 272 steps)

(Below are some photos showing insides of caves)

We had lunch at the hotel's Japanese restaurant which was so quaint. We had our own little paper/bamboo room all partitioned like a house with sliding windows and door! Outside our doorway is a pebbled path to other "houses". So cute right? The food portions and cooking were fantastic! The waitress and usher all wore kimonos with the full works! Only thing was, they looked funny as the usher was an Indian man, and the waitresses Malay women.

(Some photos at the Komura Japanese Restaurant)

That night we had dinner at a Thai restaurant at the shopping centre. They had a promo on the milkshake where you can bring home the mugs of santa claus, Mrs claus or the snowman. The girls chose Mrs claus and the snowman. They were supposed to serve the milkshake in the mugs but instead bubble wrapped them all up for us to takeaway! So sweet. Then we went shopping till the shops closed at 10pm and we were still making our last purchases at Isetan, so that when we walked out of the shop, all the sales people were in a row bowing to us and saying good-bye! Tiffy felt like a royalty and at the same time embarrassed!

(Christmas @ Suria KLCC)

(Above: Dinner @ Imperial Chakri Palace)

The next day, after hearing that we have to queue at 7am to get into Petrona towers which only opens at 9am, and still have to pay RM35 per person, we felt it was not worth our while. Personally, I prefer to sleep in a little later. Afterall, we already had quite a good view from Batu Caves! Since we wondered around Suria KLCC yesterday, we saw there was a science centre, so we visited it. Their system is interesting. They tell you your time slot...we were there @ 10+am and were given the 12noon slot and the centre closes at 4pm (it opens at 9am). After buying the tickets, we were given the 1130 slot...seems like the slots are at every half hour. With 1h, we decided to find where the aquarium was. After some time of hunting, we found it! It was at the bottom of the building next door (and the science centre was at the topmost floor of the building next to it!)...so by the time we found the aquarium, it was time to walk back to the science

centre! Quite funny actually.

We thought the science centre was going to be small even though they told us it'll take about 2h to complete it. We had to ride into it. We thought the ride would go through different stations and thought we'll skip the 1st one and ride on. Luckily Tiffy said she wanted to alight. Guess what? If we didn't alight, the next station was actually the exit!! It seems the entire exhibition centre was spread over 2 floors of the shopping centre...the 5th and 4th floors (the centre was at the 4th floor). Really, Bert and I were pretty impressed with the centre. There were lots of interactive exhibits. Gosh, makes me worry about our own Science Centre. However, the science life demo was a let-down.

(It's only a holographic car but looks real! Got fooled!)

(Below: Oil in different forms)

After that, we went to the Aquaria....the highlight was the feeding of the pirahnas at 4pm. Then the girls discovered they had a tank with 3 ELEPHANTNOSE fish! My little fairytale fish. They were much bigger than ours which were considered babies really. These were like 10cm long! (BTW our 2nd one died already). So both Bert and I were like taking lots of photos of them! The Aquaria also has a underwater world tunnel. I think it's longer than Singapore's but ours have more variety and quantity of sea creatures than KL. Strangely, Aquaria also has many exhibits of tarantula spiders, geckos, snakes and insects besides fishes. Queer combination, but nevertheless very educational and fun. There's a touch pool too, but no washing facilities! Had to use my wet ones to clean our hands.

(My elephantnose fish)

(See the rows of teeth of the great white!)

That night, we had buffet dinner at the hotel since as guests, we had 50% discount!! The spread was mostly malay cruisine with some western spread like hams, bread rolls and mushroom soup and cakes. The satay was nice with thick peanut sauce. The ox tail stew was delicious. The portions little as there were hardly any patrons as it was a weekday night and it was pouring cats and doors. Luckily we cancelled our free hotel trip to another shopping centre @ 630pm as the girls were exhausted and wanted to go back to the hotel to rest! If we had gone instead to China town, it would have been a letdown because of the rain.

We never expected the hol to be that fun, but it was. We actually wanted to go mines wonderland, but it is closed permanently. We saw the theme park when we went there the last time but didn't have time to visit it. We were disappointed of course, but found other fun things to do which made our hol memorable!

Love Theresa

Day Out with the Girls (15 Dec 10)

Dear All

This holiday is truly super bz! Can you believe it that today (15 Dec, Wed) is the only day the 2 girls and I are free of ANY activities? Tiffany was making noise that we haven't seen the Orchard Road Christmas lights yet, and I wanted to go to the Popular Bookfest @ Suntec, so I planned that we kill 2 birds with 1 stone today.

If you had not gone to the Popular Bookfest, you should go. Lots of things are quite cheap. What's more, they have a on-going "le-long" promo @ the stage, where already cheap items are going even cheaper! We got this coin purse that can be velcro taped over your upper arm when you are jogging. Usual price $4.90 now at $3.90 and at the stage promo special, it was going for only $2.90!

Then, since there was time, we squeezed in the movie "Rupunzel". At first, I didn't want to spend so much money on movie tickets...it was supposed to be only 1 show this hols, that that was Harry Potter. Then I saw the shots for Narnia, so thought it was going to be good. Then when we met up with my bro & his fam at our parents home, my nephew recommended that we watch Rupunzel as it was really good. So we went...and I must say, there's no regrets...it was really good & funny. It's another version of why she has long hair and the story line is simple & sweet. Length of film 1h 40min. Personally I think it is better than Narnia and possibly on par with HP cos HP leaves you hanging at the end as it's only Part 1.

The last part of our night was spent walking along Orchard Road. The deco at Ion was quite nice...it has musical instruments and a tent where you can enter to see the hanging lights. Nothing much in the tent actually.

Outside Taka there's a contortionist performance. We were across @ Paragon so couldn't see the performance clearly.

Personally, we found the lights this year quite boring and disappointing. It's too simple...basically just lights and christmas trees. From Tangs upwards to Tanglin, the overhanging street lights are red. Tangs to Taka are blue, Take to Plaza Sing are purple.

We tried taking the express bus directly home (it stops just outside our place). It's a 1.5h ride but at least we got to see more of the lights enroute as it passed by Suntec, Beach Road & Marina Sands.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves today. Spending quality time with family need not be expensive, especially when we need to save :)

Oh, BTW, we bought some DIY craft stuff from the Popular Bookfest to make things over the rest of the holidays. It's real fun stuff like glow in the dark fabric paints, decorating drawings of animals with gems, pasting layered foams to make a picture etc. They are not too expensive but I would think they are great things to do with the girls at home this hols.

Love

Theresa